Flyers gut out dramatic win over Caps

By ROB PARENT, rparent@delcotimes.com, PHILADELPHIA — Claude Giroux went to clear a puck from behind his net Sunday night during a penalty kil

Monday, April 1, 2013

Yet it was how Giroux took his mistake personally which sparked not only an Easter resurrection for the Flyers, but perhaps the first real argument that those playoff hopes that seemed so long late last week are right there to grab hold of once again.

Down two goals and with time ticking away, Giroux scored on a long-distance blast with 7:12 to play to wake his team up, then he set up a Kimmo Timonen goal with 9.5 ticks showing on the clock to get the game into overtime. Once there, Ruslan Fedotenko completed the comeback with a goal 1:34 into extra time, and the Flyers beat the Capitals, 5-4, and thereby joined a mad rush for a playoff spot in the East.

“Every win, every point right now is crucial,” Fedotenko said. “We are fighting for the playoffs. It’s a lot of teams (that) are fighting for playoffs.”

What’s perhaps more important is that the Flyers (15-17-3), who not only matched their season high of two straight victories, but also have garnered points in four of their last five games, have apparently managed to do so without getting too impressed with themselves. With 13 games left on their shortened season schedule, they’re only two point out of the eighth and final playoff spot in the East with this mini-miracle of a win.

But you got the idea there wasn’t going to be much celebrating.

“It’s over,” Fedotenko said. “We need to focus on the next game and make sure we get the next two points.”

While it was Giroux who played like a demon over the last 10 minutes of regulation to help bring the Flyers back, it was Timonen who supplied the tying goal and a beauty of a return pass to Caps goalie Braden Holtby’s doorstep for Fedotenko to dunk the gamewinner.

Yet Timonen’s own reaction was suitably calm.

“We have to enjoy this, but then we have to move on,” Timonen said. “We’re not in the playoffs.”

No, but they’re a heck of a lot more alive than they were Tuesday, when the Rangers took them apart with defenseman Nick Grossmann and concussed Danny Briere out of the lineup.

Since then, the blew a lead against the Islanders but managed a point in a shootout loss, lost two more regular defensemen in Andrej Meszaros and Braydon Coburn in those games ... then promptly beat the Bruins and Capitals and for the most part looked defensively solid in doing so.

At 33 points, the Flyers are in 12th, one point behind the Capitals (16-17-2, 34 points). But with a meeting with conference beast Montreal looming Wednesday, the Flyers are two points out of eighth, and seven teams are within four points of each other in the lower end of this conference playoff dance.

So the Flyers need only to look at the standings for perspective.

“I feel like we all believe we still can make it,” Fedotenko said. “It’s just that if we play like we’ve played the last two games, we’ll give ourselves a much better chance to make the playoffs. But if we’re not playing our game, it doesn’t matter mathematically if it’s possible.”

Before Fedotenko’s goal shook Wells Fargo Center, it was Giroux taking apart the Capitals. With his team having fallen behind by two goals, Giroux jumped on a power play chance and rifled a shot from out near the point past Caps goalie Braden Holtby with 7:11 left in regulation.

Then with goalie Ilya Bryzgalov pulled, Giroux dominated the Caps’ defensive zone in the final minute, finally helping to get the puck to an open Timonen for the tying goal.

Doing that set Jakub Voracek free, even if he wasn’t allowed to come out and play.

Not surprisingly, Voracek said later that he “had no idea” he wasn’t allowed to engage in a fight wearing a visor. Since Voracek was never in a fight before, of course he didn’t know.

But all he had to see was the check Steve Oleksy laid out Giroux with that brought out Voracek’s Incredible Hulk alter ego.

“I was proud of him,” Timonen said. “First fight, a good fight.”

“It was great,” would-be enforcer Zac Rinaldo said. “I was ready to jump over the boards, too. Good thing Jake did that because I was going out there.”

Voracek managed to pull Oleksy’s jersey over his head, greatly enhancing his ability to win the fight ... and bloody Oleksy in the process. But the refs didn’t like it so much. Voracek was nailed with two minutes for instigation, two for fighting with a visor, five for the fight and a 10-minute misconduct.

The Caps promptly got power-play goals by Johansson and Ovechkin to take a 4-2 lead with 13:12 left to play in regulation. And when Scott Hartnell followed it up with a slashing penalty, all seemed lost.

But Giroux was having none of it. He helped kill the penalty off, and then when the Flyers got a power play several minutes later, Giroux took off. His mistake of several minutes earlier had made something click.

It remains to be seen if the Flyers can somehow make it stick.

“That’s huge,” Read said. “But we have to put these two games behind us, start moving on, and worry about Montreal on Wednesday.”